How to get past that inner critic

Two of our teachers on getting work past that voice in our head.

Oct 25, 2023

This post is a mish-mash of Tom Hart and Jess Ruliffson at SAW.

First, Jess!

Some slogans that help

"The work wants to be made and it wants to be made through you." This quote from Elizabeth Gilbert reminds me to act like a vehicle for creativity and let ideas (source: the universe) flow through.

I do worry about being cliched, but I am also getting better at accepting that I have to work through cliches sometimes to get to deeper stuff.

My partner and I also have some slogans around perfectionism: "Dabblers Unite!" and "65% is good enough" are frequently heard at my house.

Finally, I never call myself an artist; I just want to express creativity through stories, sewing quilts, my blog posts, drawing, poems, cooking. . . . That seems to help me stop expecting every product to be good or excellent. It's just an expression.

Also To keep my perfectionist in check, I had a note up on my desk for a few years that said:

Good enough! I've internalized it and when I see that I am getting into crazy town perfectionism - like fixing lines no one will ever notice - I just repeat the phrase and move on. At first it worked, but then the effect wore off.

Next I tried: Flawed & fantastic!

Then simply: Just keep going! That one's actually been with me for years now.

I like the motto: Don't do your best!

Anybody else have any lines that cheer them on?

Tom says:

“I have BORE YOUR DETRACTORS over my table. My detractors are perfectionists, stylists, and people who only want something different than I can give.”

Back to Jess…

The ‘writer/maker’ voice

Do you feel your ‘writer/maker’ voice is often at odds or battling your inner editor? Does it feel as if there are two inner voices speaking at once when you sit down to draw or write?

Peter Elbow in Writing Without Teachers frames this experience rather well here, saying:

“It’s an unnecessary burden to try to think of words and also worry at the same time whether they’re the right words.”

I picture the writer mind driving the car, and the editor mind pointing at this and that, while the writer is attempting to drive a safe speed, eye merging traffic, keep the car on the road of the story. If you must put the editor in the back seat for awhile, this is ok!

The editor can still point at things but you can put on the radio a bit, ask the editor questions and keep them in mind in your rear-view mirror, a source of information that doesn’t threaten to take the wheel too soon. Once you’ve clocked enough writing/making hours to make your bottom tired, it might be good to invite the editor to drive awhile.

If the editor shows up too soon, there isn’t enough “there” yet, and the project stalls. But if the editor is late to the party, there is *too* much stuff and my writer-maker brain is relieved, “I’d thought you’d never get here! HELP! I have too much stuff!"

I hope this finds you on the road to "too much stuff" and internalizing the buddy comedy/road trip your inner writer and editor team deserve!

-Jess

Ok, now Tom…

Training the Inner Critic

I like to think that we can TRAIN the inner critc, first to become a NOTICER, and then, a SUGGESTER.

The Critic likes to ask, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

But the critic has no idea who you are. The critic only knows who you're not.

You see other people's idiosyncrasies everywhere. You're seeing their obsessions, and their pains, their talents and their difficulties and yes, their triumphs. None of those are yours. You have your own, we all do, they come with our bodies, our history and our environment.

We need the critic to notice WHO we are. So we can train it Notice who we are, by SURROUNDING ourselves with your own art.

Here's how: Make work. Lots of work. Proudly show it who we are.

And you can help keep the critic at bay during this work by:

Telling the critic this work isn't important (It's just play, for fun, or practice.)
Telling the critic they can jump on when you're finished, and suggest new ideas
Working faster than it can keep up.
Doing something else with your brain while you work (that's why I recommend counting backwards in some exercises.)

PLUG: I have a free whole course on this, as part of the Comics Flow Membership group, it’s here:

https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/comics-flow-group

So, someday soon, I hope you can be surrounded by your own work. Your own filled up coloring books and practice books and construction paper collages and whatever.

Give yourself the gift of seeing your light everywhere.

And we'll work on training the critical mind, to NOTICE and then SUGGEST, and not just judge.

Redefining Success

What if success meant just doing and observing?

What if success was just:

sketching
drawing
writing
taking care of yourself
reaching one person
transforming the sketches, drawing, and writing into something else.

Some other methods to train our inner critic

We can let our critic interview us.
- It like to feel important. If WE control the tone, and keep it neutral, we can TRAIN the critic to stay neutral.
- SEE MY VERSION, HERE. :)
We need each other to see ourselves.
- Find at least one partner and help each other.
Identify (and thus de-emphasize) your critic
- SAW friend Mauricio figured out who his inner critic was, and then drew him, and in doing so, defanged him, and also found him laughable. Here he is: